Behavioral And Academic Concerns With Students Of ADHD

There are various types of ADHD that a student can have. Depending on the types of ADHD that the student has, it can impact the behaviors that they have in class as well as their academics. ADHD is broken down into three different categories. The first type of ADHD is inattentive, students who have inattentive ADHD have a hard time focusing, limited attention span, distractibility, forgetfulness, and they difficulty staying organized. The second type of ADHD is hyperactive. We will find that students with hyperactive ADHD can be impulsive, always fidgety or on the go, do not have patience and are constantly making inappropriate comments and/or blurring out the answers. According to Vaughn and Bos (2015) behavior specific praise is an intervention that teacher can implement in their classroom that can help reduce these types of behaviors. Simmons and Ellis, (2014) also shares that progress monitoring can benefit these students when using BSP. The last type of ADHD is combination, students who have this can experiences trouble staying focusing, limited attention span, distractibility, forgetfulness, and they difficulty staying organized. Along with this, they are always fidgety or on the go, do not have patience and are constantly making inappropriate comments and/or blurring out the answers. (Gargiulo, 2015,p.263).

When a student is diagnosed with ADHD, it is very common for this learning disability to impact the learning of themselves as well as others. When students have a specific learning disability it is common for a functioning, behaviors and their interactions with their peers to be impacted as well. (Gargiulo, 2015,p.263) Some of the strategies that teachers can implement in their classroom to help students with any types of these types of ADHD is by having an area for students to self-regulate, using behavior specific praise, monitoring their progress and giving them choices when able. I plan to use these interventions for the student that I will be working with. My goal is to implement these interventions in the classroom to reduce behavioral concerns that I have with him.

Evidence Based Literature/ Interventions

According to Greenwood and Dunn (2016), providing students with a simple choice of two similar homework assignments was associated with students feeling more motivated to complete the work, believing they were more competent regarding the work, and scoring higher on unit tests that incorporated content from the homework. (P.169) Ennis, Jolivette, and Losinski, (2017) also shares that “Choice making is a low-intensity strategy teacher may implement in the classroom to address behavior and academic challenges. Sources and Hall (2016) also shares that teachers should avoid power struggles.

The second strategy that I will use in my classroom will be to allow students to choose how they would like to self-regulate. I feel that this important to do when working with students who have combined or impulsive ADHD because we know that they struggle with executive functioning like self-regulating. As mentioned by Jones, Greenwood, Dunn

(2016) having this organizational role, the executive functions play an essential role in how a person thinks about and responds to events. Which in the end, contributes to their ability to “manage and direct their attention, thinking and actions to meet adaptive goals and the ability to maintain an appropriate problem-solving set for attainment of future goals. (Jones, Greenwood, & Dunn, 2015, p. 51). I think it is important that we are providing and teaching students ways to self-regulate when they are feeling overwhelmed. Once we are able to get students to self-regulate independently, it will improve their social, emotions and academic successes in the classroom. (Miyake and Friedman, 2012)

The article, “Teacher-Provided Positive Attending to Improve Student Behavior” by Jonathan G. Perle (2016) will discuss how implementing Behavior- specific praise in the classroom will help reduce the about amount of off-task and disruptive behaviors. Implementing BSP (behavior-specific praise) in the classroom will help teachers target positive behavior rather than focusing on only the disruptive behaviors. BSP is an evidence-based classroom management strategy that improves student behavior by letting students know exactly what they are doing correctly. In result of using BSP we will find that students will engage in more on task behaviors. “With increases in teacher- provided positive attending being associated with increases in on-task behavior and numeracy enjoyment and as well as decreases in aggressive responding” (Jonathan, 2016, p.250).

Along with the strategies mentioned above, it is important that teachers are monitor in the progress of students. By doing this teacher will be able to see what different interventions are and are not working in their classroom and how the student is responding to them. Teachers can do this by creating a spread sheet in excel and monitor students’ progress weekly for one month at a time. Students’ progress will be rated based on level of proficient that they are at. If a student is making little or no progress teaches can easily make modification to better accommodate the individual student’s preferences, strengths, and needs. (Wilson, 2013, p.114) Teachers can easily incorporate this into their classroom because this is a strategy that has been effective for students. Progress monitoring does not only have to focus on behavioral or academic’s, but I can be for both. It is important that teachers do this especially when working with students who had ADHD. As mentioned by Barton, and Harn, B. (2012), students with an exceptionality like ADHD need reinforcement and reminders of how they are doing, in order to be able to perform better. Reinforcement is the process of adding or removing a stimulus after a behavior occurs that results in an increase in the frequency the child performs the behavior in the future.

Implementing these intervention

When it comes giving students a choice, I will either use across- activity or within- activity choices. Across- activity choices involve giving students a choice of what activities they would like to do (e.g., would you like to write a book report or give a speech about the story you just read), in what order they would like to do them, or what future activity they would like to engage in following a required task. Within-activity choices involve giving students a choice of materials, location, or partner for a specified activity.” (Ennis, Jolivette, and Losinski, 2017, P.86) This will work great for students who have combined ADHD, because if they seemed to be over whelmed or agitated, they will be able to use within activities, where they will have the opportunity to choose with who and where they would like to work with. As for across activities, they will get to pick what type of assignment they would like to complete. “Using choice-making as an antecedent intervention during academic demands can help to improve the interactions between students with ADHD and teachers. (Jones, Greenwood and Dunn, 2016)

In my classroom, I have an area that is designed for students. This area is known as the cool down area. As Jones, Greenwood and Dunn (2016) mention, having a time out area “provides an opportunity for children to calm down so they may then benefit from some form of problem solving/solution development, skill building, or opportunity to practice behaviors to use when again confronted with a frustrating situation.” (P.203) After the student has had time to calm and when he/she is ready to take about their frustration, I also plan to establish goals for the student based on their needs and developing a system for students to be able to self- regulate. I also plan to share this information with any other staff members that are working with the student. (Cavanaugh,2016)

When thinking about how I am going to implement behavior-specific praise in my classroom, the first step would be to recognize positive behaviors in the classroom. As we are recognizing positive behaviors in the classroom, Jonathan G. Perle (2016), states that “Teachers should strive to be specific, immediate, consistent, frequent, and preventative.” (Jonathan, 2016, p.251) Implementing these factors, will allow the teacher to focus on the student’s positive behavior rather than the negative. Focusing on the positive behaviors rather than the negative will allow the student that I am working with to understand what type of behavior is and is not acceptable in the classroom.

I will also be collaborating with general ed. teachers to target disruptive behaviors in my classroom for student that I am working with. BSP will be implemented in my classroom by acknowledging on task behaviors throughout the whole class period. Being that there are not guidelines to how often this type of intervention should be used, it will be the teacher’s responsibility to monitoring how long it will take the student to become off-task. This data will let me know how often I often the student should be reminded of performing on task behaviors. This intervention will last throughout the whole school year and will be monitored weekly until the student has showed significant progress.

Analyzing Student Performance Data

As I have been working with this student, I have been gathering data of how my student is doing with these interventions by using progress monitoring. I have been doing this frequently with the student since he was displaying inappropriate behaviors often. Simmons and Ellis, (2014), states that “data is most effective when it is summarized regularly and reviewed weekly to determine if the student is making progress or if something needs to be changed” (Simmons and Ellis, 2014, p. 518-519). The data that I have collected is based on the personal goals that have been established with the student. The students’ progress will be kept on an excel sheet and will be shared with the student and guardians weekly. Sharing the data with the student frequently will allow the student to see the progress that he is making as well as allow me to know what adjustment I may need to may in the classroom to help meet his needs. This data has been able to help me identify what has been triggering these behaviors as well as when they are more likely to occur.

Progress Monitoring

As I have had the opportunity to work with my student and use these interventions I have noticed a decrease in behaviors over the past couple of weeks. I have been able to identify that the student’s behaviors tend to peak when he is asked to work in small groups, when having to do writing intense assignments, and/or when he does not feel comfortable or confident with an assignment that he has to start. I felt like this was great information for me because I have been able to praise the student when being on task

before and during whole and small group instruction, which seems to be keeping his motivated. I have also been able to give the student choices when having to do writing intense assignments. Some of the choices that I have given him is being allowed to type, having the option to writing shortened versions of the assignment and include picture that expresses his learning and being able to complete more hands-on projects. I have also set up an area in my classroom where the student is able to self-regulate. The student also has a designated area in the front office where he is allowed to sit up there for up to 15 minutes or until he is ready to go back to class. This is something that has been very helpful because when I see that the student is overwhelmed, I will ask him if he would like to go get water or he will get up at take the hall pass to take some time to cool down.

I have been monitoring how well these interventions are working and how the student is responding to them. I have been sharing with the student and his parents at the end of the week all of the positive choices that he has mad as well as the areas that we need to still work on. The student is very motivated that he has had more positive feedback than negative. I have also noticed that he is now interacting more with his peers in a positive manner and has slowly been able to work with them, which seems to be a motivator for him. Overall, I feel that the student has made significant progress with these changes in the classroom. At the beginning of the grading period his other teachers as well as myself did not believe that he was going to make progress towards meeting his behavioral or academic goals. However, now that the grading period has ended and these strategies have been implemented he has more adequate progress towards his goals.

Impact Statement

Having the opportunity to work with these students has been great. When I first started working with the student at the beginning of the school year I was to say the least overwhelmed. I wasn’t sure what I was doing wrong or how I could support him. It had seemed that everything that I tried wasn’t working. Once I started understanding how the student’s exceptionality was truly impacting their academics and behaviors, I was able to understand what I needed to do to support him. After researching different interventions that go hand and hand with one another and implementing them in the classroom, I almost immediately noticed a difference in the student’s behavior and academics. Working with this student has really taught me the importance of understanding different exceptionalities and how they impact the learning of the student and those around them. I am excited to continue implementing these strategies with the students since I have noticed that it has made difference for not only the student that I have been working with but for everyone in the classroom who has different needs and exceptionalities.

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